Northants skipper David Sales tried eight different bowlers during the fourth day's play, including two overs from Bilal Shafayat, but the Essex pair managed to put on 230 for the third wicket, before Cook departed It would have been just reward for Cook had he reached his first ever first-class double hundred, but the left-hander's patience finally snapped and he was caught by Australian Martin Love off the bowling of Ben Phillips.

The Australian danced with delight after recording his first century for the Welsh country in the national league and broke the top score of a Glamorgan player against Northants in this competition - which was previously held by Rodney Ontong in 1982.

Northants, who won the toss and batted first, soon found that an awkward, two-paced pitch made fluent stroke play extremely difficult and they were heavily reliant on a solid innings of 80 not out off 106 balls from opener Russell Warren.

Although Glamorgan's follow-on total is a challenging 382, the refusal to declare earlier seemed odd, considering the turbulent weather forecast, with Northants knowing they needed to bowl out David Hemp's side twice to record their first championship victory of the season.

The daylight between the 2002 champions and bottom club Northants, therefore, looks likely to contract to a handful of points, and there is no argument now that Surrey are just as thoroughly involved in the basement battle as the team who ought to deservedly beat them here.

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